Riverhead moves to keep school resource officers amid funding dispute

The Riverhead Town Board is expected to vote on a resolution on Tuesday to extend the existing agreement with the Riverhead Central School District to provide two school resource officers until June 30, 2027, without any future commitments to additional years.  

Town attorney Erik Howard told council members at Thursday’s work session that the school district agreed to fund its portion of the SRO program with the allocated $200,000 in its $218.9 million 2026-27 spending plan approved in May.

This means the town will cover the remaining expense of approximately $150,000 for this school year. The intention is to also hold meetings between the two boards leading up to their 2027-28 school budget planning, so there is more appropriate budgeting for the SROs, Mr. Howard said. 

“No commitment for them, and no commitment for us,” Mr. Howard said. “This town board has been pretty clear that in order for the program to continue, you would expect to have direct communications with the school board in advance of their budget planning for the upcoming school year.” 

The two sides initially agreed to station two armed Riverhead police officers in the schools after a series of security incidents, including when a student sprayed another with pepper spray, four children were called a racial slur at a football game, and a Riverhead High School student was stabbed on his way home, renewed calls for SROs in 2023.

For 2024-25, the Riverhead Board of Education agreed to pay 50% of the cost to employ one of the two SROs, an estimated $88,000 total, leaving the town to cover roughly $264,000 of the estimated $352,000 cost, according to previous reporting. For 2025-26, the school district and town split the cost evenly — about $176,000 each.

The agreement to share the cost of the SROs expired over the summer, leaving the two sides at odds over who should pick up the tab. The dispute came to a head at an Aug. 27 town board work session, when school officials warned the current funding gap could ultimately leave the district with one fewer officer.

Councilwoman Denise Merrifield argued if the town was not involved in the school’s SRO program, and the school district covered the cost in its entirety, taxpayers living within the district lines would have received a STAR exemption or reduction.

“Riverhead Town residents in the Shoreham-Wading River School District, and residents in the Mattituck school district that live in town of Riverhead, this is actually taxation without representation,” Ms. Merrifield said. “You could not vote for this or oppose this…but you’re being asked to pay it on your town taxes. I oppose this.”

Councilman Ken Rothwell echoed the councilwoman’s concerns of residents within the Shoreham-Wading River Central School District paying for services “that are not being rendered to them.”

He expressed his support for the program, but said having the school district cover the SRO program expenses entirety is “the fairest way to do it.”

“I just feel that we’re pushing it off another year without a commitment from them, and we want the program, I want this program, to continue,” Mr. Rothwell said. “We’ll do what we have to do to keep this program operating — it’s essential for the kids, but we’ve got to bring the school board to the table.”

Town officials agreed it would be best to have productive meetings with school district officials sooner rather than later and looked to possibly meeting in October.

The Riverhead Town Board will vote on this resolution at its Sept. 15 board meeting.